Lilo

On our list of the best special-occasion restaurants in San Diego.

Chef Eric Bost, who ran the kitchen at République in Los Angeles before returning to the coast, opened Lilo on Carlsbad's Roosevelt Street in 2025 and earned a Michelin star within six weeks. Sixteen or so courses move past a U-shaped, 22-seat counter that wraps the open kitchen. Guests start in a courtyard under a tree, then pass through a wall of glass into the dining room. The tasting runs through big-eye tuna and wagyu tartare with yuzu, spot prawns, roasted California squab, and a blackened banana dessert with Koshihikari rice and shiro miso caramel, built around Bost's Southern California coastal ingredients: kinmedai, Maine lobster, abalone.